Valerie Eliot Dead: TS Eliot's Widow Dies Aged 86

Valerie Eliot, the widow and literary executor of poet TS Eliot, has died at the age of 86.

The poet's estate said she died on Friday at her London home after a short illness.

Valeria Eliot

Valerie Eliot was the second wife of the US-born Nobel literature laureate, whom she met at London publisher Faber & Faber. He was a director, she a secretary.

The couple wed in 1957. Friends said the marriage was a happy one despite the almost 40-year gap in their ages.

After TS Eliot's death in 1965, Valerie became his devoted executor, editing his poems and letters for publication and steadfastly refusing to cooperate with would-be biographers in keeping with the poet's last wishes.

A death notice in the Daily Telegraph said her funeral would be private.

T. S. Eliot Quotes

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T. S. Eliot's office

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
Photograph taken at the Faber office on Russell Square the day after Eliot's death in 1965.